ON FARM SOUTHERN CATTLE SNAPSHOT: Jamie Roebuck, Waverley Station King Island operations manager, l King Island Area: 10,000ha Enterprise: Beef cattle Livestock: 8,000 Angus breeders Pasture: Ryegrass-clover pastures Soil: Sandy loam to heavy clay Rainfall: 850–1,000mm the high-rainfall environment and at our scale it’s not Jamie has also lifted labour following year. and counteract soils which possible without people,” efficiency by adjusting “For the past two years, are deficient in many Jamie said. breeder management. we’ve scanned heifers into trace elements. “My biggest driver is profit He runs a strict six-week first and second-cycle mobs Productivity is also lifted and my biggest consideration joining period, but calving and run them separately. through genetics, with bulls in achieving that is the is spread over eight weeks This reduces labour during sourced from Waverley impact on the team. as heifers are joined two the calving period as we Station’s Angus stud at Scone. weeks earlier than cows to know which mobs will calve As well as delivering desired “I believe the more you invest give first-calf breeders time first and can monitor heifers trais such as soundness,t in your staff, the more they to get back into calf the accordingly,” Jamie said. ■ goodgrwth and a moderateo give back. I enrolled all our cofw rame, this economically staff on the island in the Jamie Roebuck allows higher turnover of Pasture Principles program, E: jamieroebuck@waverleystation.com bullsto accelerate the rate and by having everyone ‘on board’ it’s been easier to waverleystation.com ofgenetic gain. implement the changes to Soil fertility testing: agassist.com.au Investing in people our grazing.” Benchmarking group: holmessackett.com.au A labour-intensive enterprise Strategies to increase Pasture Principles program: macquariefranklin.com.au and the challenge of labour efficiency include aracting and retainingtt Improve your management skills by attending an skilled staff in a remote simple repeatable systems, upcoming MLA Business EDGE workshop at locations rural community means technologies such as across Australia. Information: mla.com.au/events people are just as important farm-management software Jamie presented a case study on his farm business as pastures. and electronic data management strategy at the 2018 MLA-sponsored collection, and infrastructure Tasmanian Red Meat Updates. The 2019 event is on “No business can be such as laneways and 26 July. Find out more at redmeatupdates.com.au sustainable without profit, well-designed yards. 29